Healthcare operations have significantly evolved throughout history to track patient activity and statuses accurately. Over the years, medical professionals have grown to rely on various software to deliver better patient care and manage logistics. Since there are so many moving parts in healthcare, technology makes managing daily operations more accurate and accessible than ever.
The most significant advancements in healthcare technology include DME management and EMR software. For so long, these healthcare solutions have co-existed but never could integrate. Lacking integration capability means clinical providers in the field still have to navigate the two areas separately, causing delay and room for error.
What is an EMR?
EMR, or Electronic Medical Record, is one of the most common healthcare software today. EMRs allow healthcare providers to accurately track and document patient care diagnoses, procedures, and many other essential forms of communication.
Additionally, EMRs keep everyone involved in the patient’s care team updated on treatment plans, medical history, vaccinations, and other essential information. EMR capability has grown significantly to serve other healthcare areas such as scheduling, insurance claims, and payment.
EMR vs. EHR
A quick mention that is important to understand is the difference between EMR and EHR. Electric Medical Records are not the same as Electronic Health Records despite sharing many parallels. An EMR is used almost only for each clinical practice to track the patient's health and treatment activity.
The EHR goes beyond the care clinic immediately treating the patient and can transfer patient health information to different healthcare providers. Additionally, EHRs provide more in-depth information about the patient’s health versus focusing only on the patient’s immediate diagnosis and treatment plan.
Why It Matters?
Understanding the differences between EMR and EHR is vital when looking for DME software for your hospice organization. DME software, like Qualis, is designated to work with EMRs to provide immediate relief and assistance to current treatments. DME software doesn’t bring much value to EHRs since they are more just a database of patient health information and are not actively being used to update and document active treatment plans.
Bridging The Gap Between DME and EMR
Any hospice worker will tell you the importance of durable medical equipment in this healthcare sector. Many hospice patients need DME to maintain a normal lifestyle due to injury or illness causing some form of disability in their life. Creating a link between how hospice staff order DME and updating Electronic Medical Records is key to drastically improving hospice operations for everyone.
Benefits Of Integrating DME Software and EMRs Together
Integrating DME software with your hospice organization’s preferred EMR is going to bring a plethora of benefits. Every time a DME order is placed, your organization will continue to reap the benefits in more ways than one. Read below to learn how your organization can drastically bolster operations by integrating DME software with your EMR!
Better Organization
Everyone in hospice knows that organization is one of the critical pillars of success. Managing multiple patients, their families, operational logistics, and all the other moving parts requires highly detailed organization. EMRs are the lifeblood of any hospice because they can instantly update a patient’s chart in real time for any other provider to see.
Integrating DME software with your EMR will instantly create better organization by combining two of your hospice's most critical and busy areas into one. This will eliminate having to track EMRs and DME orders separately and provide a central point to access both.
Improved Communication
Linking your EMR with DME software will improve communication across the board for the entire team. Everyone can see live updates on their DME orders for each patient through the EMR. Finding different ways to improve communication within your organization will ensure everyone can do their jobs optimally and operations smoothly.
Accurate DME Ordering
To order the proper DME for patients, we need EMRs that stay up to date in real-time to ensure the appropriate equipment is ordered. Integrating DME software with your EMR will eliminate the possibility of staff ordering the wrong DME for their patients. DME software can pull the patient and their information for the order along with their updated treatment plans. Hospice patients can have last-minute changes but do not affect DME ordering accuracy.
Increase in Employee Satisfaction
You want your team to be happy and feel like they’re constantly being supported. To achieve satisfactory employees, you must find ways to take some stress off their shoulders and often streamline time-costly areas. Making the DME ordering and tracking process easier for your team will save precious minutes every time that compound and create more time for other higher priority tasks.
Helpful Automation
Specific DME software, like Qualis, for example, has particular automation features that make your team’s job even more accessible. Qualis can send automatic pick-up times for DME orders based on the patient’s status in the EMR. Features like this can cut time-wasting tasks out of your team’s day and take off an already stacked workload.
Better Patient Care
All of these benefits fall back to the one priority everyone who works in hospices has: excellent patient care. When you find intuitive ways to improve your team’s productivity and relieve some stress, they’ll be able to provide patient care without feeling pressed for time. To provide the best possible care, the team must have the right tools to save time and not rush through patient care procedures.
It’s important to note that Qualis can interface with almost any EMR of your choice.
Help your team get the resources they need to succeed at their jobs. Patient care is always the top priority, but unfortunately, when care teams have too many tasks to juggle, their attention can quickly become divided. “Interface” is a frequently used term within our industry. The team at Qualis understands that integrations work on a spectrum, and we’re proud to promote interoperability with almost any EMR software.
Qualis is ready to integrate into your preferred EMR and improve your team’s efficiency today! Don’t risk losing out on the quality of care when you have all the tools you need to take a significant workload off your team’s shoulders today!
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